A paragraph that he wrote really struck me:

All-or-nothing reformations and all-or-nothing revolutions are not true reformations or revolutions. Most history, however, has not known this until now. When a new insight is reached, we must not dismiss the previous era or previous century or previous church as totally wrong. It is never true! We cannot try to reform things in that way anymore.

I would describe myself as someone committed to and convinced that as a world, a country and a church we need reform (or even revolution) but I have also come to realise that what Richard Rohr says above is really true. This reform or revolution that needs to take place must also seek to preserve all that is good in that which has preceded this moment. The arrogance of saying that, ‘we have got it right and to hell with everything before us’ must give way to humble and generous reform. A reform that has ‘eyes to see’ and ‘arms to receive’  the gifts of people and generations that have gone before us.

At NieuCommunities we are committed to speaking openly and honestly about areas we feel need reform in Christianity and our society but we try our best (though admittedly we sometimes fail) to never fall into the ‘all-or-nothing’ reform that Rohr describes above. We want to be open and generous in everything we do, even our criticisms!

Lord have mercy.

Not to be confused with Gondor, Gondar is (according to our guide Haile Selassie) the ‘Camelot of Africa’ . Out of everything I saw in Ethiopia this was perhaps the thing I least expected to see, ‘Castles, in Africa.what the…?’ It is so different to anything we have in Southern Africa and goes a long way to re-configuring stereo-types about Africa. Beyond that it just added another layer to the mystique and intrigue that seems to characterises so much of Ethiopia.

Enjoy!

We arrived back from Ethiopia just before Christmas and many of you have asked to see pictures from the trip. After just a few more sentences your curiosity will finally be satisfied so hang in there! An experience like this is quite difficult to put into words so I have decided to just let the pictures do the talking (he says while he continues to type more words).

After two years of saving, many hours of planning and a couple of setbacks that nearly derailed our trip, including the possibility of supplementary exams, Becky and I were finally able to travel to the enigmatic and magical land of Ethiopia.

We travelled nearly 3000 kilometres, to7 destinations using a multitude of transportation including taxi’s, buses, minibuses, horses, planes, tuk-tuks and boats. We experienced both the vibrancy and poverty of Addis Ababa as well as the overwhelming beauty of the Bale mountains. We befriended locals and we befriended foreigners, we were treated with warmth and hospitality and we were ripped off.  We wanted to stay there longer and we were ready to come back home. We experienced a full range of emotions with the vast majority of them being positive.

Without a doubt this was the most memorable trip that I have been on and if you are considering a travel destination, Ethiopia should be top of your list.

I look this photo in our front yard early one morning!

 Download Chasing Daylight/Epiphany 2012 meditations written for 3rd Place here.

Chasing daylight serves as an apt metaphor to describe the climax of the Cycle of Light, the period of the liturgical year commencing with Advent, reaching a crescendo with Christmas, and concluding with Epiphany, the season to witness the light of Christ having not only entered the world through a newborn, but now dwelling within our souls and in all places on earth.

Robert Webber writes, “Now I am to be a manifestation of Christ. My part is to respond, to say yes to the calling, to commit my life to be a center through which the Epiphany could be extended beyond the crib to the world of my everyday experience” (Ancient-Future Time).

Our internal discipline is simple this month: Develop a short occasional prayer that pertains to a regular piece of your life. Invite the Spirit to engage your heart in a fresh way with a regular part of your life.

Epiphany is a particular season where we seek to chase the daylight we see within the neighbors God has place within our proximity.

 Download Chasing Daylight/Epiphany 2012 meditations written for 3rd Place here.

It's metaphorically ironic how much the NieuCommunities/Pangani Ark looks like a coffin (Something must die for something else to rise!).

Really proud of NieuCommunities South Africa  for carrying forward the mission and memory of NieuCommunities South Africa into the heart of Pretoria from our old stomping grounds way out in Pretoria North, Pangani.

I was initially called back to Pretoria to not only pursue Maxie (the real reason ), but also to help NieuCommunities South Africa move into the heart of the city center and transition towards apprenticing Africans into sustainable mission around the world. It’s been amazing as Maxie and I have somewhat returned to square one in the past few weeks of our discernment process to realize that my two initial reasons in mission for returning to Pretoria are well on their way to completion, within the time frame (2 years from early 2010) of my commitment towards this very transition (again, 1: helping our missional community move into the heart of Pretoria to align ourselves more centrally with the life and needs of the city, and 2: transitioning toward the apprenticing in mission of South African leaders).

This is happening people, as evidenced by NCSA’s wonderfully creative “Pangani Ark” retreat this past weekend. Here’s Joe’s thoughts, and a Facebook album:

As a missional monastic community, Pangani played a critical part in our formation. God met us all in deep ways. This is our constant reminder that we stand on the shoulders of many others who came before. As we move to where God has us in the city, we carry these memories with us. Baie dankie dat jy God vir die gawe van Pangani! (via Joe Reed, Director of NieuCommunities South Africa)

Most of those who now participate in NieuCommunities are of an African culture now.  The only person in our leadership team that has experienced living here are Curtis and myself.  It was an important step to give the other members of our leadership team (and some of our other members) that understanding in a tangible way.  What better way to constantly remind ourselves of our past than building an ark with relics from the past?

Just as the people of Israel placed crucial relics of their past, I took the team on a tour of the property.  I told stories as I remembered hearing them from before my time as well as stories I helped to write.  It was painful, joy filled, and emotionally driven for me.  As we worked our way to the coffee shop, I stood in a very important place.  Natalie and I sat with Rob Yackley there a little over two years ago to confirm the vision God had been placing on our hearts to stand next to African leaders in community, helping birth new initiatives wherever God opened doors.  It was in that room that we launched into what we are now busy building today.

Builders build on foundations.  Without the solid foundation, whatever you try to build just collapses.  I wanted to make sure that at this pivotal moment in the story of NieuCommunities, we captured a deep understanding of that very foundation.  I want us to throw our hammers wherever God allows us to while anchoring our identity in what God has already begun.  This ark serves as a constant reminder that we are standing on the shoulders of many tears & celebrations.  May His kingdom come and His will be done so much more deeply as we choose to carry these memories with us.

We believe the Church can learn much from this melodic display of agility and force.  When we joined Church Resource Ministries almost four years ago, I was introduced to this article by Ralph Winter.  I thought it would be helpful to post here because of some recent conversations I have been having with pastors at local churches (what Winter terms as “modalic structures”).

Before you read this, here would be my preface…

• Why it is important: I struggle to understand why various ministries (“sodalic”) and local churches (“modalic”) try to cater to every need around them.  We become bloated trying to cater to every single need in our cities.  This article gives helpful language for the power of collaboration I was discussing in our last post.
• What he is suggesting & NOT suggesting: He is NOT suggesting that one is better than the other.  There is sort of one-two punch that when applied in sync, can do a lot of good for the Kingdom of God in a city.  When we begin to view ourselves as needing to hold both functions all in one organization, we really miss out on opportunities to see the Kingdom grow.
• How the Kingdom of God has grown historically: I like how Winter draws on the historical lessons from the Church.  It helps us to see how God has worked in the past 2000 years and what might be similar in our cities today.  It’s at least worth discussing.
• What if deep partnership is possible: As you’ve picked up in our other post, I am a big advocate for Kingdom collaboration.  I have found that it lets our community be super focused on what God is asking us to do.  It helps other organizations NOT do things we are good at so they can get super focused on what they’re good at.  It’s nice when we all play well together.  Lives get changed and the Kingdom grows.

One-two punch.  When this is done in sync, watch out!

Then I got sad.

“So would this be a NieuCommunities thing, or could we call ourselves our own thing?” He asked me.  I sat up and told him it’d be a Kingdom thing and whatever it took to help them reach their friends for Jesus is what we would commit to doing.

• Why are we more concerned about spreading our flags (the new version of colonization?) than empowering people to reach people?
• Who do we want to see win?
• Why is our status in the world more important than helping other people climb on our shoulders so they can go further than we could?

Just a few points of observation that got under my skin today.  Maybe this is a little blunt or possibly too harsh, but it’s worth checking ourselves on.